Featured this week

Arkansas: Israel’s Deputy Consul General Gives Talk at UA
by Kate Ward

Belaynesh Zevadia, the deputy consul general of Israel to the Southwest, presented a lecture last week titled "From Africa to the Middle East: An Ethiopian-Israeli Perspective." Born in the village of Ambovar in the Gondar region of Ethiopia, Zevadia immigrated to Israel in 1984. She joined Israel’s Foreign Ministry in 1993, becoming the first Ethiopian woman in Israeli Diplomatic Service.  "I was one of about 4,000 other Ethiopian Jews [in Israel] at that time," Zevadia said. "Ethiopian Judaism started about 2,500 years ago, but the first time a European came to Ethiopia and said 'I'm a Jew,' we were like 'no, there are no European Jews.'  Today in Israel, there are 100,000 Ethiopian Jews," Zevadia said. (Northwest Arkansas Times)

Franklin & Marshall: Football Tailback at War
by Mike Gross

Paul Fix is a senior at Franklin & Marshall. He’s a tailback for the Diplomats. Paul has spent the last three years fighting terrorism. Fighting it in an upclose and very untheoretical way. Fix was a member of a special operations unit of the Israeli army, fighting Hizballah, the Shia Islamic terrorist group. This was after three years of college. One year away from graduation, Fix not only put his life on hold but risked it. He’d do it again. “Just an amazing kid," John Troxell, F&M’s first-year football coach, said. “They don’t come any better." (Lancaster Online)

Haifa: Jewish Agency Assists College Students Called to War

“The war fell upon me like a bolt of thunder on a summer’s day," says Noam Raz, a student called up for emergency reserve duty in the recent Lebanese war. "All the plans that I had for the coming year fell apart in minutes. I rely on the summer months to work hard and save for college and living costs during the year.” For reserve student soldiers like Noam, who were unexpectedly called to war this summer, the Jewish Agency in partnership with the UJC is providing immediate tuition scholarships. These scholarships will assist thousands of talented reserve soldiers in returning to college and completing their education; a crucial step for their future.  (Jewish Agency)

Kennesaw State: Israeli Journalist Speaks
by Daniel Burnett

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Israeli journalist Orly Azoulay outlined the grave importance of the situation that began around the globe and hit so very close to home. The Israeli journalist went undercover into a world unlike her own - Iran. As an Israeli female journalist in a nation whose leader has denied the existence of the Holocaust, Azoulay spent much of her time in Iran very cautiously. When critics of her expedition questioned her, comparing Iran to "a ticking bomb," Azoulay invoked her pro-dialogue stance, replying, "I decided I would listen to what the ticking bomb had to say." (KSU Sentinel)

NYU: Netanyahu Urges Iran Sanctions, Rejects Israel Villification
by Nick Brennen & Thomas Garry

Recent conflicts with Israel are not about borders, but an attack on Israel’s existence, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a speech last week. Netanyahu, who served as the Israeli Prime Minister from 1996 to 1999, spoke about the danger of Iran’s nuclear program and the recent conflict between Israel and Hizballah to a crowd of about 900 students who crammed into Cooper Union’s Great Hall. (Washington Square News)

Pune, India: War and Peace, an Israeli’s Perspective
by Sam Lee Mrdul

When it rained Katyushas - 122 mm artillery rockets and the mainstay of Hizballah’s rocket force - in northern Israel, veteran Israeli journalist Emmanuel Rosen was at the frontline reporting for  an Israeli TV channel. He covered the recent Lebanon crisis that lasted all of 32 days, from July 12 to August 14 when the UN-sponsored ceasefire was declared. Barely a month later, he is touring India. The purpose: A lecture on ‘Middle East: A view from within’ and ‘Journalistic practices in times of conflict’. ‘‘Journalists should bring out the truth, I did my job and received a lot of criticism,’’ Rosen told a gathering at the University of Pune. (Pune Newsline)

Wash U in St. Louis: Finding Peace Through Cooperation and the Environment
by Sam Guzik

On Monday, Sept. 11, alumni from the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel visited with a message of peace and understanding. Approximately 50 students came to listen and participate in the forum. The alumni, Mohammed Atwa of Gaza and Rina Kedem of Israel, told the story of their experiences learning and growing on the Institute's campus on Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava desert in southern Israel. Rabbi Michael Cohen, the director of special projects for the Institute, joined the pair as a representative of the program. (Student Life)

Boston: Israeli Soldiers Speak on Reality of War
by Caroline Hotchkiss

Last night's presentation, titled "A Tale of Two Soldiers: Two Israeli Soldiers Recently Back from Lebanon Discuss their Experiences," was organized by Boston Chabad and BU Students for Israel. Discussion following a presentation by two Israeli soldiers in a BUclassroom turned political last night, despite the best efforts of event organizers to keep the focus on the men's personal experience fighting Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. Soldiers Daniel Sack and Shmulik Israel, both 29, are on a country-wide college tour.  Most students said they found the presentation touching and pertinent to their own lives, because many of them had either been to Israel or had friends and family there.  (Daily Free Press)

Georgia: Students Experience Terrorism Reality in Israel
by Shaina Mangino

Though it may not be apparent to some, terrorism affects many, and there are people who have to live with its reality each day. In their recent trip to Israel, Patrick Bentley, a senior from Norcross, and Clare Hatfield, a junior from Alpharetta, learned about this prevalent issue and the people who face it on a daily basis. Hatfield, who said she couldn’t wait to go, said, “The trip was incredibly educational, surprisingly moving and unbelievably inspiring.” Their trip was the first part of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Undergraduate Fellowship on Terrorism, Bentley said. (Red and Black)

Harvard: Two-State Solution has Receded Since War: Dershowitz
by Sheldon Kirshner

The prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians has been set back by the recent war in Lebanon, Harvard law professor and Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz said last week. But the fighting has made it possible for Israel to make peace with Syria, he added. Dershowitz, here to address the UJA Israel Emergency Campaign and speak to Jewish students at the University of Toronto, struck pessimistic and optimistic notes in discussing the current situation in the Middle East. (Canadian Jewish News)

King's College, UK: The Israeli-Irish Troubles
by Manfred Gerstenfeld

"If one were to throw a sack of flour over the Irish parliament, it is unlikely that anybody pro-Israeli would get white," says Dr. Rory Miller, senior lecturer in Mediterranean Studies at King's College, London. "The Irish cannot shake off the belief that Israel is a colonial oppressor," says Miller, but "it is easy to show that they have much more in common with Israel than with the Palestinians."  (Jerusalem Post)

Northumbria - UK: Chana Comes Home to Support Israel

Chana Wynick is determined to stand up for Israel when she begins a choreography and dance course in Northumbria next week. Last week, the 19-year-old Alwoodley girl, who returned from a gap year in Israel in May, formed part of a 70-plus crowd demonstrating outside the Syrian Embassy. "If there hadn't been Jews demonstrating outside the Syrian Embassy, next to Hizballah supporters, the rest of the world would have taken this as a sign that British Jews didn't care. (Jewish Telegraph-UK)

Tufts: Living on the Edge: Students in a War Zone
by Michael Skocay

“It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life…when we heard the earth-shattering noise, we ran into the stairwell of the apartment building.  We had no idea how close the missile was. After a few minutes we returned to the apartment, turned on the news, and went to the balcony to see what had happened. The missile had fallen on the mountainside across from the apartment.” This is the experience of one Tufts freshman, a dual citizen living in Haifa, Israel, as rockets landed near her family home. The missiles were fired from across the border by Hizballah forces, and were one of the hundreds of Katyushas fired into northern border cities. The student and her family were fortunate to have escaped the destruction, and they quickly fled Haifa for Rishon LeTzion, a small city outside Tel Aviv. (Tufts Observer)

York: AEPi and Delta Pi Told to Amplify Israel
by Jenna Rosman

Members of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) and Delta Pi from York University - a Jewish fraternity and sorority - were part of the 90 students from universities across the United States and Canada who attended the AEPI and Israel Amplified event in Louisville, Ky. “[The event focused on] Israel advocacy and mobilizing sorority and fraternity members on campus to promote Israel advocacy and to recruit other sorority and fraternity members to advocate for Israel,” said Jeff Justiz, member of AEPi at York University who attended the three-day retreat, August 13 to 15. (Canadian Jewish News)